Received this in an Email from a relative who is a breast cancer survivor. Don’t have a link for it yet. In the meantime, if you are fixing something to eat right now, don’t use that plastic refrigerator container in the microwave.
Subject: FW: Cancer News from Johns Hopkins
Cancer News from Johns Hopkins:
1. No plastic containers in microwave ovens. This means NONE, not even the ones that claim to be microwave safe.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.
Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.
Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.
He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body.
Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc.
He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.
This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life!
Update: this piece was migrated from a different site. Comments and links have been retained.
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September 3rd, 2006 at 12:19 pm Well, not quite.Snopes has already debunked this particular urban myth in its entry called “Plastic-tac-toe”, but if you want to see what Johns Hopkins actually says about it (as opposed to the paragraph ascribed to Johns Hopkins but in reality added by some unknown Internet user back in early 2004), visit the interview with Rolf Halden, Ph.D. (Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health).Here is a relevant excerpt:
Even the Mayo clinic has entered the debate with the following statement:
Again, however, there is the admonition to only use plastics that have been approved for microwaves.
As for the e-mail warning, it is among those that BreakTheChain.org recommends not sending on. Their very complete analysis of the issue can be found in their article, “Microwaves, Plastics, and Dioxins — Oh My!”
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:58 pm Damn. I wrote out a whole snark on this perennial e-mail “warning,” which, when I submitted it, “softly and suddenly vanished away.”Apparently my Snark was a Boojum.Okay, so I’ll try my snark again, this time without quotations and summaries (but I’ll ask you to check out the links.)To begin with, this e-mail warning has nothing to do with Johns Hopkins — an attribution that was added early in 2004.
This particular urban legend has been very roundly debunked by snopes (“Plastic-tac-toe”, Break the Chain (“Microwaves, Plastics, and Dioxins…Oh My!”, the Mayo clinic (“Plastic containers in the microwave: A cause of cancer?”), and even Johns Hopkins itself (“Researcher Dispels Myth of Dioxins and Plastic Water Bottles”).
The upshot of all these replies is that you should only use plastics that have been deemed microwave-safe, but otherwise not to worry.
BreakTheChain.org is requesting that this particular e-mail no longer be passed on because: “As we can see, the perceived reliability of the message’s source can be deceiving.”
Every e-mail warning should be checked out before passing along. It is generally quite easy to do so, often involving nothing more than a quick Google search using a few of the key words. Nine out of ten times they are either hoaxes or such a mish-mash of partial facts with wild speculation as to be useless.
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:19 pm So far, this is an urban legend. Snopes.com has information about it here.
September 4th, 2006 at 11:22 am Oops. Obviously there is a delay feature involved in posting comments, so the comment I thought had disappeared was just caught up in a queue of some sort.Sorry about the double post (which are called “waffles” at snopes.com).
September 4th, 2006 at 12:22 pm I was hoping some of these links would state unequivically that plastic is not harmful, but none of them do that. Instead they say the person presenting the information was a public health official and not a medical doctor, that the substance migrating into the food from the plastic was not dioxin but some other hormone-like compound, or that the information did not originate from an offical source within the hospital but was merely being passed to friends on hospital Email accounts by hospital employees. Nothing in the links that would alarm the plastic industry, is there.Instead we are told to be sure to use plastic that is clearly labeled as safe for microwave and not to let the plastic actually touch the food. The plastic has to stay one inch away from the food. Not very reassuring. I have also heard the stories about breast cancer and links to caffeine and BBQ charcoal. As someone who already has a family history of breast cancer, I don’t know what to think. Somehow I don’t expect there will be more research on the subject soon.